Famous modern day India-Australia controversies

#3 Michael Slater-Rahul Dravid fight, 2001 Mumbai

Michael Slater has a go at Rahul Dravid

The 2001 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was a landmark series in many ways. And this series also witnessed the famous Kolkata Test match.

But much had happened before that match. Australian skipper Steve Waugh had declared before the series that India was his final frontier. The first Test match at Mumbai saw one of the ugliest spats in modern day cricket.

The fact that it involved one of India’s coolest heads, Rahul Dravid did surprise many. Slater appealed for a catch against Dravid in India’s second innings and it was turned down by the third umpire.

Then began what Peter Roebuck described as “Slater’s moment of madness”, the Australian fielder walked up to umpire S Venkatraghavan and began arguing. He then turned to Dravid, who had rightly stood his ground, and exchanged some not-so-pleasant words.

Later on, though, the Australian opening batsman apologised to Dravid and the two sat down together for a pint of beer after the game. So, while it was indeed a controversy which did not go down well with the fans, it ended in a mature manner.

Slater was later fined half his match fee and given a one-match ban for discussing this incident in a radio interview.